건배 to 180 Days Of Living Life The Korean Way!

As we rapidly approach the halfway mark here in Korea (Friday will be officially 6 months since we boarded our flight at MSP) I have become increasingly aware of what coming to Korea entailed. We both remember signing our year contracts thinking, "what is a year in the grand scheme of things?" and while I still feel that way, I am definitely stating to feel slightly nostalgic for all the things that I am missing at home. Don't get me wrong, I do not regret my decision to come here in any way, shape or form (and I am fairly positive that Meg does not as well) but sometimes, you wake up in the morning, and the thought of walking to the subway/bus in the pouring rain instead of getting in your comfy car or not being able to end a rough work day by texting all your girls for a girls' night makes you want to board the next flight home. But don't get your hopes up loyal readers! We are staying till the end as there are still many adventures to go on and many more life experiences to be had!

Last weekend Meg and I headed to the southern tip of Korea for a White Lotus Flower Festival and some beach time. We had booked the trip through Adventure Korea (AK) and true to form, the trip started out with a bang. We arrived at the pick-up point only to discover that only Meg's name as on the list. Apparently I had transferred the money, but thought Meg was confirming me (to which she replied "why would I confirm you?") so I technically didn't have a spot on the bus. Luckily, the AK guys love us (a couple of the leaders have learned our names by this point) and we got it all sorted out. From here we boarded the bus, only to discover that there were not two seats together anymore. Meg was fortunate enough to end up sitting by a really nice lady named Kathy who was fun to chat with. I on the other hand ended up spending the 5 hour ride sitting on a quarter of a seat as the guy next to me was quite large. Definitely not the best bus ride experience I have had in Korea. We arrived at the festival and disembarked the bus, the cameras rolling the entire time. Literally. We discovered when we arrived at the bus that this particular AK trip was being followed for some documentary or something (we aren't quite clear as the guy who explained it wasn't the best English speaker). Some of our friends from the southern part of Korea met up with us at the festival as well, which was fun.

Anyhow, at the festival we got to try making onion kimchi (which I was recorded doing and then interviewed about afterward), making lotus leaf wrapped rice (which apparently you were supposed to fry, but Meg and I just ate uncooked...whoops), Korean drumming, and tasting lotus tea and beer. We also took a boat ride through the lotus leaves and got to wander around the festival enjoying the sunny weather (the heat this weekend was reminiscent of Thailand). After the festival we headed to dinner and then to the pension where we were staying. The pension was a typical Korean style place (sleeping on the floor and all that jazz) but it did have an outdoor swimming pool, which was fabulous! We got up the next morning to head to a small islet for a couple of hours. The islet literally disappears when the tide comes in so we had a limited amount of time here but we made the best of it. Meg and I did some clam digging, got to swim in the VERY salty ocean (with some fish guts as some Koreans were cleaning fish right there), and even took a ride on a banana boat. We also got some quality sun, which hadn't happened to us at a Korean beach yet!

This past week has been pretty typical. I have been frantically preparing my classroom for open class/conferences which are coming up a week from tomorrow (more on these after they occur). I decided to rearrange the entire thing, strip all my walls and redecorate them, and clean out all my cupboards and shelves. While this has been very time-consuming and frustrating, I am pleased with the (almost) final result and am happy to report that after 5.5 months my classroom finally feels like my own! My parents are arriving in about 2 weeks for a week long visit and then we are only a few weeks away from our 3 day Chuseok vacation and the visit of Meg's mom and grandma! More on all this and more to come soon!

A final note as monsoon (we hope) has winded down here in Korea. Not only are Koreans afraid of fan death and the sun, they are also afraid of rain. We have learned that you will get many strange looks if you walk in the rain without an umbrella (even if it is barely sprinkling). Koreans believe that the rain is acid rain and will cause their hair to fall out as well as other various problems. Of course, you can imagine how hard it is to walk on the sidewalks when all 10 million people who live in the city need an umbrella open at the same time. Also, getting places on rainy days takes quite a lot of extra time as every person comes to a dead stop at the top of the subway stairs in order to open their umbrella before even a drop of rain lands on them. This causes a huge traffic jam and general frustration on many of the foreigners' part. Going along with this, you think a country that had a monsoon season would be smart enough to not use slippery materials to build their sidewalks. But no. Whatever material Korea uses to pave the sidewalks is probably the slipperiest thing I have ever walked on when wet - especially in flip flops. Meg and I have both had moments of almost falling and having to catch our balance - and within the last month we have both had moments of completely falling on our backsides in the middle of the sidewalk - luckily hurting no more than our pride!